A number of device monitoring applications and systems are available for organizing, viewing, and monitoring devices distributed across one or more networks. Such applications monitor status and operational data for the devices and display this device information on specialized user interfaces in one or more suitable formats.
In addition to identity and status information, some device monitoring applications also maintain topological information identifying each device's location within a hierarchical location topology. This topological information allows the device monitoring application to organize the device data on the interface displays based on the respective locations of the devices. Conventionally, some or all of this location information has been entered manually for each device via the application's user interface. Since the user interface for the device monitoring system may not be located near the devices for which the topology information is being entered, collection and entry of this information can be a tedious and time-consuming process.
The above-described deficiencies of conventional patch panel systems are merely intended to provide an overview of some of the problems of current technology, and are not intended to be exhaustive. Other problems with the state of the art may become further apparent upon review of the following detailed description.